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Lamb castration and tailing practices in New Zealand: results of a questionnaire

Abstract

There is a large body of literature that has examined the impacts of castration and tailing on lamb behaviour, stress response,
pain and productivity (Fisher et al. 2010; Kent et al. 1993; Mellor et al. 2002; Mellor & Stafford 2000). Recently, Kerslake
et al. (2015) investigated lamb tail docking, residual tail length and the reasons behind farmers’ choice to dock. There is little
information available, however, regarding castration methods and reasons for the choice of leaving lambs entire, castrated or
short-scrotumed. A printed questionnaire was distributed to ~12,000 farmers on the Beef + Lamb New Zealand database. The
questionnaire contained 30 questions on aspects of management of flystrike, louse control, tailing and castration. Information
was sought regarding percentage of lambs tail docked, method used to remove tails, reason for the tailing decision, proportions of
male lambs left entire or castrated or short scrotumed, the method used to castrate or short-scrotum, and the reason for choice of
male lamb type. A total of 1253 (10%) of questionnaires were returned. Of the farmers that responded, the most commonly used
tailing method was a hot iron (61%), followed by rubber rings (31.4%). Lamb growth was the primary reason that farmers gave
for leaving lambs entire, and to a lesser degree short-scrotum. The reason behind the decision to castrate was most commonly
related to lamb behaviour, however, a number of reasons had similar frequencies (lambs stay cleaner, infertility and meat quality).

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For over seventy years the New Zealand Society of Animal Production has played an important role as a forum fostering research in all areas of animal production including production systems, nutrition, meat science, animal welfare, wool science, animal breeding and genetics.